Mildred hopes to emulate housemate Dean in Paris

Ed Mildred will be sharing a flat with Olympic champion Tom Dean next year and hopes to emulate his training partner's meteoric rise at Paris 2024. The Northampton star dipped his toe in senior swimming last year, graduating from the junior circuit with three Commonwealth and two European medals. Ad Dean hadn't won a global medal of any description before gold on Olympic debut in Tokyo, a steep trajectory to the top that Mildred is hoping to emulate.

SwimmingKatie Shanahan is writing herself into swimming historyA FEW SECONDS AGO «I would be going into my first Olympics at the same age as Tom was,» said the 19-year-old. «He's proven how quickly things can change in the sport of swimming and I'm hoping to be another one of those people who can shake things up. »I can take a lot of encouragement and confidence from the people around me." Mildred is expecting Dean to be a clean and tidy flatmate, as well as a regular golf partner alongside James Guy and Jacob Peters.

The quartet train under Dave McNulty at the British Swimming Performance Centre in Bath. McNulty, named Team GB Coach of the Year in 2021, has guided swimmers onto the Olympic podium at every Games since Beijing 2008. Mildred upped sticks from his lifelong base in Northampton to the south-west with designs on working with McNulty, who has encouraged him to focus on 100m events due to his natural explosiveness.

«Dave knows what he's doing, he proved it with Tom and he's got the accolades behind him to prove he's a very good coach,» said Mildred. «Dave is very honest with you. He won't boost you up too much, he'll be straight with you and he's very good at reading characters in and out of the pool.